Short selling

Platinum Fund Australia used to make a lot of money out of its European Fund while the markets were tumbling.  The managers were perceived as brilliant.  When it floated, I dumped all my shares in it to collect a massive stag profit.  I didn't have any urge to buy those shares back.  Why?  There is nothing brilliant about short selling.  Personally, it is an evil scheme and it demolishes values of shares 'owned' by mums and dads, manipulated by savvy finance 'experts'.  Kerr Nielson became one of Australia's richest men after the float.  But look at what has happened to the share price of that stock now.  He has made money out of people thinking how brilliant he WAS.

Spain and Italy banned short selling recently.  They should have done it earlier.

If you want to know what stocks to buy in turbulent depressing times like now, follow my late father's advice:  Choose good business that pays GOOD dividend consistently, i.e. dividends out of profit, not of out borrowed capital.  This advice was from someone who went to school for only 2 years and was a pauper but was able to accumulate enough wealth for many of his 10 children to live comfortable in Malaysia off their share of the inheritance.  And my mother has enough dough to make sure she is well-looked after.